


Blood Calls to Blood

by AtowncalledMalec



Series: Shadowhunter One Shots [8]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types, malec - Fandom
Genre: Discussions of Immortality, Established Relationship, Immortal Husbands, Immortality, Light Angst, M/M, based on another work, future!fic, mentions of charcter death, no actual charachter death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-07-20 07:27:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19988377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtowncalledMalec/pseuds/AtowncalledMalec
Summary: When Alec wakes up in a strange apartment in Queens, barely conscious or able to move, he knows that it has happened again. These kinds of spells are supposed to be permanent, right?Apparently not.Hopefully, The High Warlock of Queens can help him figure some stuff out and reveal a long-forgotten secret or two along the way.A couple of these characters belong to cc and failform. The other belongs to @lynne_monstrThis work is not to be reposted anywhere else or translated without my permission.





	Blood Calls to Blood

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lynne_monstr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lynne_monstr/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Something in the Air (makes you do strange things)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17006661) by [lynne_monstr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lynne_monstr/pseuds/lynne_monstr). 
  * Inspired by [bring the year in right](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17250983) by [lynne_monstr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lynne_monstr/pseuds/lynne_monstr). 



> Hey folks. This is for Lynne who very kindly let me dabble in her world after I read two of her fics. I went in and plucked a couple of ideas that had the cogs turning, and mashed them into one fic. If you want to read the fics that inspired this, and I very much suggest that you do, click on the link. 
> 
> The first is called Something in the Air (makes you do strange things) and is a vignette fic. The first vignette is where I got Cara from and pertains to this story.  
> The second fic is called Bring the Year in Right.
> 
> I'd say read the first vignette of Something in the Air (and the rest of them bc they're awesome) before reading this because it has a lot of the background for this fic and is so fucking good! Also, check out the rest of Lynne's works. They don't disappoint.

A small groan escaped Alec, his body aching and heavy. He tried to sit up, willing his body to move, trying to force his pretesting muscles to contract. But he couldn’t. He felt too lethargic to move. Even his eyelids protested when he tried to open them.

“Alexander? Come back to me.”

The words reached Alec from a great distance, barely a whisper, so quiet he almost believed that he had plucked them from thin air. A warm weight settled on his arm before darkness claimed him. 

**

“...don’t like it. It’s taking too long.”

Alec tried to open his eyes, positive that he had already tried to at some point. Though, if someone asked him, he couldn’t tell them when. Giving up on trying to move anything, he listened instead, a familiar voice, and one that he didn’t recognise, reaching him from that great distance once more. 

Alec tried to gauge why the first voice was so familiar to him but he couldn’t think through the aches that pricked at the places where he was joined together - knees, elbows, shoulders, hips. All of it hurt.

“He’s strong, Magnus. You got here just in time. Just have a little faith.”

_ Magnus,  _ Alec thought, trying to sift through the fog that swirled through his head. The name was as familiar to him as his own.

“Yes, he is strong. He’s also stubborn. I suppose that can only help.”

The voice sounded fond at the end, but Alec could also hear the worry. Something gripped his hand before he was once again pulled under the blanket of darkness that came to claim him, strong fingers sliding between his own before there was nothing once more.

**

“Stubborn Nephilim! Wake. Up!”

Alec wanted to say that he was trying, to reassure the owner of that soft voice, so fraught with emotion, that he was trying to wake up but words seemed like too much of an effort right then. He was too tired.

**

“Don’t think this will get you out of dishes duty, Alexander.”

The threat made Alec want to smile, even if it felt like his face didn’t remember how.

**

“This isn’t the first time it has happened this quickly. The periods of time between castings are getting shorter and shorter. I’m not sure how he will react to this.”

Soft fingers brushed gently through the strands of hair at the front of Alec’s head. The touch was familiar and reassuring.

“Oh, I don’t know. I think it makes him look even more handsome than he already was. Distinguished.”

There was that female voice that he was coming to recognise, even if he didn’t have a face to put the sound. He had heard enough snippets of it between bouts of sleep. It seemed that the land of nod wasn’t done with him yet.

**

“Don’t try to move.”

The voice was that of the female this time, not as distant but just as quiet as the last time. Forcing his eyes to open, Alec blinked up into a pair of unfamiliar brown eyes, squinting at the light that pricked at his eyes.

“WhermI?” Alec asked, having to clear his parched throat to try again when the words came out incorrectly, his heavy eyelids closing once more. 

“Where am I?” Alec tried again. 

Instead of an answer, a small, warm hand curved beneath his head and tugged, cold glass pressed to his lips. Opening up, he tried to take a gulp of the cool, sweet water that slid past his lips before the glass was taken away. 

“Slowly! You’ve been out of it for the last three days. You’ll make yourself ill if you gulp it down like that.”

Alec opened his eyes once more, finding it easier once he’d taken a few small sips of the water that was offered once more. He took his time, watching the woman who watched him back, wondering why she spoke to him like that. 

The woman’s tone was that of someone familiar, like an old friend or a parent scolding a child. But Alec didn’t know her. At least, he didn’t think he did. 

Something about her shoulder-length blonde hair and big brown eyes tugged at Alec’s subconscious, the longer he looked at her, however. As though maybe he  _ had _ known her a long, long time ago. The woman was slim, quite beautiful with full lips and high cheekbones. But Alec couldn’t remember where he might have seen her before. 

“Where am I?” Alec asked again when he had drunk as much water as the woman allowed him to. “And who are you?” he added.

“To answer your first question, you are in my apartment in Queens. And as for the second, my name is Cara Shadow,” Cara said, placing the half-empty glass down on the nightstand next to Alec’s bed. “I am the High Warlock of Queens,” she clarified when Alec looked at her with confusion swirling through the hazel of his eyes.

“High Warlock…? Magnus?” Alec asked, trying once more to sit up.

“He’s right there,” Cara said softly, raising the top end of the bed that Alec was lying in, with a wave of her right hand, the index finger of her left pressed to her lips.

Alec couldn’t move much but his clenching stomach settled in place when his bed rose up and Magnus came into view. He realised then that he was lying in a hospital bed. The bed couldn’t hold his attention for long, however, not when he saw Magnus slumped over the side of his bed, fast asleep.

“He has barely slept since he got here,” Cara said, smiling as she watched Magnus sleep.

“What happened? Why am I… why are we here?” Alec asked, trying to sift through the snippets of conversation that he had heard each time he had slipped back into consciousness over what he guessed must have been the last three days.

“Blood calls to blood,” Cara said, turning her gaze back on Alec when she saw him jerk out of her peripheral. 

Alec’s face screwed up in confusion, wondering what the woman was talking about. He forgot about her odd choice of words when he felt Magnus stir beneath his fingers, not having realized that they had slid into Magnus’ hair. 

“Alexander, You’re awake!” Magnus breathed when he sat up, jolted by the sound of voices, and saw Alec peering down at him. Taking Alec’s hand in his own, he pressed his lips to the back of Alec’s hand, thanking Raziel that his husband was finally awake. 

“Sorry I scared you,” Alec said, smiling softly when Magnus rose from his chair and sat on the edge of his bed instead. His eyes closed when Magnus pulled him in close, Magnus’ lips at his forehead, a sneaking suspicion about what had happened creeping over him.

“How much do you remember, Alec?” Cara asked when Magnus settled beside Alec on the bed, their hands twined together in Magnus’ lap, their matching wedding bands shining in the dim candlelight that lit the room.

“I’m not sure,” Alec replied, struggling to find the right memories. There were a lot of them crammed into his head. “I was on the hunt… I went down an alleyway, chasing a… I can’t remember. Then there was a lot of pain. I tried to call Magnus, again… and then...”

Alec strained to remember but it was all too jumbled, had all happened so fast, no warning. This time. 

“It happened early again, didn’t it?” Alec asked quietly, turning to Magnus for confirmation of his theory. 

“Yes, it did. And what were you doing out chasing demons or whatever it was you were hunting? Hmm?” Magnus asked, one eyebrow raised to give his husband a look. “You’re the Consul for the Clave, not some mission shy Shadowhunter grunt out on his first patrol! Where was your backup when you were lying in some rotten New York back alley?”

“Where  _ is _ Christopher?” Alec asked, trying to deflect Magnus’ questions, properly chastised. More memories returned with Magnus’ grilling. 

“Oh, don’t you worry about Christopher Herondale. We’ve had words,” Magnus said, his tone darkening. “You were supposed to be overseeing the transition of leadership of the New York Institute, not going out gallivanting with our nephew,” he muttered.

“I’m still a Shadowhunter,” Alec said petulantly, rolling his eyes, muttering the word “Gallivanting” under his breath. 

“Well, you  _ were  _ gallivanting. It is a perfectly good word,” Magnus sniffed when he heard Alec muttering under his breath.

“There was an outbreak of Eidolon demons, we thought we could handle it,” Alec shrugged. 

“Tell me again why you made him Head of the Institute? The boy is just as reckless as his great-great… however-many-great’s-grandfather-Jace was,” Magnus said pointedly.

“Because he’s got as much potential to be as good a leader as Jace was. He just needs the opportunity to prove it,” Alec said. His heart didn’t ache as much as it used to or stomach tighten quite as painfully while talking of his family anymore. Now he looked back at the memories they’d left behind with fondness more than anything. He opened his mouth to continue before Cara spoke up.

“Gentlemen, I think we have more important things to worry about than your ‘old married couple’ bickering,” Cara said, arms crossed over her chest, staring at the couple. They acted like they were teenagers, rather than the centuries-old powerhouse couple of the Shadow World that they were. 

“Sorry, my dear. I’ve been on the edge for three days straight,” Magnus said to Cara before turning to his husband. “Sorry, I was just worried. You wouldn’t wake up. It wasn’t fair of me to snipe at you,” he said, tightening his grip on Alec’s hand. The lack of sleep, and worry, had made him lash out. 

“I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have split up from Christopher,” Alec admitted. He supposed that Magnus did have a point. And it had been a long time since he had been out in the field. “But this would have happened whether Christopher was with me or not,” he pointed out. 

“When was the last time you performed the immortality spell, Magnus?” Cara asked, getting down to business.

“Thirty years ago,” Magnus said with a tight smile.

“And before that?” Cara asked. She snapped her fingers, producing her notebook and a pen to add the information to her notes.

“Thirty years before that, but the time before was forty years, and the time before that fifty,” Magnus said, trying to push down his panic as Cara scribbled away in her notebook.

“It was always fifty, for the first couple of centuries,” Alec added, clinging onto Magnus’ hand, seeing his own worry mirrored in Magnus’ eyes.

“Then we need to find a way to make it permanent,” Cara said, flicking back through her notes. 

“Do you think we haven’t tried?” Magnus asked incredulously. “I thought it was permanent the first time I performed it,” he muttered, remembering how he had performed the immortality spell on his husband like it was yesterday, instead of 346 years ago.

“Can I see the book?” Cara asked, holding her hand out for it. 

“Believe me, I’ve read it cover to cover, scoured every inch. It is the oldest spellbook known to Warlocks. The damned thing survived the fire that destroyed the Library of Alexandria. If there was a way to make it permanent, it would be in there,” Magnus said. 

“It doesn’t hurt to let someone look at it with fresh eyes,” Cara sighed, shaking her head when Magnus’ eyes narrowed. “Oh for Lilith’s sake! I’m not casting aspersions on your abilities, Magnus. I’m simply offering my two cents worth.”

“Just give her the book, Magnus,” Alec said, stroking his thumb over the back of Magnus’ hand. He still wasn’t sure who Cara was or why she was so invested in helping them but he wouldn’t turn the offer down.

“Fine! But be careful with it,” Magnus said, snapping his fingers to conjure the spellbook, feeling like he was giving his right hand away. Normally he would have no problem sharing spellbooks with fellow Warlocks. This particular book, however, held the only immortality spell in existence. 

Magnus had placed every protection and preservation spell that he could come up with on it. It was ancient magic and therefore irreplaceable. Not to mention Alec’s only chance to stay with him. They had been together too long, had been through too much and were still as in love with each other as they’d been during their first years together, to give it all up now.

“Yes Dad,” Cara muttered under her breath as she took the book in hand. Magnus was acting like what she imagined a father, talking to their idiot child, would act like. Her own father had put her out the day that he had found out her mother had been a succubus so she wouldn’t know. Luckily, the Warlocks of New York had raised her between them.

One wave of Cara’s hand had the lamps in her spare room flicking on, the better to study the book with. She flicked to the bookmarked page, finding the immortality spell, even if she itched to go through the rest of it with a fine-tooth comb. Knowledge as old as this deserved to poured over, not flicked through like a magazine in a waiting room.

Alec watched Cara study the spell, impressed that she could even read Aramaic. It had taken Magnus several years, the help of a few Warlocks and a Rosetta Stone to decipher the spell. Cara was reading it like it was the Sunday newspaper. Not that he would say any of that out loud. 

Alec was struck by that feeling of familiarity again when Cara chewed absentmindedly on her bottom lip. He was about to open his mouth when Cara sat bolt uptight.

“Ha! Blood calls to blood,” Cara grinned, her head darting up to meet Magnus’ gaze.

“Huh?” Magnus asked, none too eloquently. He had been too busy watching Cara handle the book to pay attention to how far she had gotten into the spell.

“You said that before,” Alec said, his brow furrowed, remembering the words Cara had spoken when he’d asked how he got there. The wink that Cara aimed at him only deepened his confusion.

“Have you been using your own blood?” Cara asked Magnus, cutting Alec off with a wave of her hand. 

“Of course. It’s listed right there in the ingredients,” Magnus replied, scooting off of the bed to point out the ingredient list for the potion half of the spell. The spell was a combination of a potion and a spell. “See, there, ‘blood of the immortal blood’,” he said, refraining from tapping the book. 

As Asmodeus had been immortal, Magnus was of immortal blood. He could have used any immortal being’s blood but he preferred using his own. It gave him and Alec a bond of sorts.

“That says ‘immortal blood of  _ thy _ blood’,” Cara said, doing her best to keep her impatience from her voice. “Oh please, ‘blood of the immortal blood’ makes no sense!” she exclaimed when Magnus started shaking his head.

“Uh, what does it mean though?” Alec asked when he saw that Magnus was about to retort.

“If it said ‘blood of the immortal blood’, any immortal creature’s blood could be used in the potion,” Cara theorised, thinking it through. “It works up to a point, I suppose. I mean, you’re living proof that it  _ has _ worked. But it only lasts for a small period of time. An immortality spell should be permanent. Magnus’ immortal blood only works up to a certain point…”

“Magnus?” Alec asked, ignoring Cara’s ramblings when he saw his husband’s face pale considerably. “What does it…?”

“It means that we will never be able to make the spell permanent. The amount of time between castings will just get shorter and shorter until it stops working,” Magnus said, his voice scratchy due to his suddenly dry throat, thinking through the implications of the mistranslated words. They were supposed to have forever.

“What? Why?” Alec asked, his alarm clear in his tone when Magnus sank onto the end of the bed, Magnus’ fingers raking through his hair. It was rare for Magnus to lose his composure like that, setting him on edge.

“Because I didn’t translate it properly,” Magnus said quietly. “It isn’t my blood you need…” he trailed off. 

“Technically, there is one way for us to get the blood that you need. The blood would have to come from a child, one that carries your blood in its veins, conceived with an immortal being,” Magnus said, turning to look at Alec. They had a child, a Warlock child, Max. But their son was adopted. 

Which reminded Magnus that he needed to send a fire message to the Spiral Labyrinth to let their son know that his dad was okay. Max was there curating a collection of Warlock texts for the Spiral’s library and hadn’t been able to leave.

Magnus was sure he would love any child of Alec’s but it still meant that Alec would have to have a child with someone else, even if fertility treatments had come on leaps and bounds over the last few centuries or so. The thought of it made his stomach clench. Not only could he not have a child of his own naturally but the other parent of Alec’s child would have to be a demon.

“I don’t…” Alec couldn’t even finish the sentence. He didn’t understand how they had come up with  _ that _ from a few mistranslated words. He didn’t want to have a kid with anyone but Magnus. Magnus was the father of his child, the only person that he would want more children with. And how would it even work?

“Or we could just use my blood,” Cara said, shrugging when both Alec and Magnus’ heads snapped around, Magnus looking at her with wild hope, Alec with his ever-present confused expression. “It says ‘immortal blood of thy blood’. His blood runs in my veins,” she said.

“What?” Alec choked out, gawping when Magnus pounced on Cara and swung her up into a hug. 

“Hold up, how…? I mean… what?” Alec babbled, absolutely positive that he didn’t have a daughter. For a start, he had never had sex with anyone other than Magnus. And certainly not with a woman.

“Cara, my darling girl, you’re a genius!” Magnus beamed, crushing the woman to his chest. “Are you sure?” he asked, pulling back to look at Cara.

“Girl?” Cara muttered under her breath. She was over 350 years old for demon's sake. 

“Hey! Hello, remember me?” Alec asked, trying to climb from the bed. His wobbly legs didn’t seem to want to hold him up. “Hey! Does someone want to explain to me what the fuck is going on?” he yelled when Cara and Magnus started discussing ingredients.

“You really don’t remember me, do you?” Cara asked Alec, her stomach dropping a little when Alec shook his head slightly, even as a small spark of recognition flashed through his eyes.

“Alexander, do you remember when I asked you for a vial of your blood to cure a sick Warlock child?” Magnus asked, rushing forward to sit on the bed beside Alec, taking Alec’s arm in his hands. “You didn’t even hesitate. You gave it to me without question. And when we cured her, you diminished your part in saving her?” he asked, knowing that it was a lot. It was three and a half centuries ago.

“You…? Wait, Hattie?” Alec asked, staring at Cara when she stepped forward, a shy smile on her face. He looked over her features a lot more closely, reconciling her face with that of the sick child that Magnus had taken him to visit - when Cara bit into her bottom lip. 

The last time Alec had seen Cara, or Hattie as she had been called then, she had done just that to stifle her pain-filled moans. She had been no more than eight or nine years old at the time. “I called myself the ingredients,” he mumbled, a lump forming in his throat when Cara took his hand and squeezed. She was all grown up. And a High Warlock to boot. 

“Ugh, I hate that name. I changed it as soon as I found out Warlocks could choose their own names. Cara, after the gorgeous Cara Delevingne, and Shadow, after the Shadowhunter who saved my life,” Cara said, laughing when Alec’s confusion returned.

“Cara Delevingne was a supermodel back in the early 2000s… you know what? Never mind,” Magnus said, patting Alec on the shoulder. Alec was still as clueless about pop culture now as he had been all those centuries ago.

Shrugging it off, a small sense of pride welled up in Alec, making him wonder if this was how Magnus felt whenever one of his adopted Downworlders flourished after he had helped them. He’d had a hand, or as Magnus had so fondly pointed out, an arm, in curing Cara and she had obviously gone on to carve a future for herself afterwards. 

“Anyway, it’s my turn to be the ingredients now,” Cara said with a shaky laugh, letting Alec engulf her in a bear hug. “I swore to myself that if I ever got the chance to repay the favour, I would help you both in a heartbeat,” she gasped out through restricted airways.

“It is more than helping. You are saving Alec’s life and by extension, mine,” Magnus said, weighing in on the hug.

“As I said, I’m repaying the favour,” Cara shrugged, downplaying her role but still pleased with the sandwiching hug she received.

“Pish,” Magnus scoffed, patting Cara’s cheek. She was just like Alec. 

“Come on, let's go and brew this potion,” Cara said, pulling her High Warlock game face on, turning for the door.

“We’ll be with you in a moment,” Magnus said, smiling when Cara nodded and left them alone. He snapped his fingers and handed Alec’s  _ Stele  _ over. “You can use this now,” he said, watching Alec swipe it over his  _ Iratze _ and  _ Nourishment _ runes. 

The  _ Stele _ would have been no good before, Alec hadn’t been ill or injured, he had been returning to his mortal state, something that no  _ Stele _ would be able to help with.

“Hey, what is it?” Alec asked, dropping the hem of his shirt when he heard Magnus stifle a gasp, his head rising to see Magnus on the brink of tears. Pulling Magnus into a hug, he pressed his lips to the crinkles around Magnus’ screwed-up eyes. 

“I just love you. And I hate the thought of anything happening to you,” Magnus said, sinking into Alec’s embrace, pushing away the thoughts of how close Alec had been to leaving him. 

“It wasn’t that…” Alec started before Magnus cut him off. 

Magnus snapped his fingers, producing a mirror, and turned it to show Alec his reflection. “You started ageing when the spell wore off,” he said, watching Alec’s eyes widen, Alec’s long fingers combing through his bangs. 

Alec stared at himself in the mirror Magnus handed him, gawping at the white streak in his bangs, the rest of his hair still pitch black. The changes weren’t drastic, he hadn’t suddenly spouted wrinkles and nose hair but he could see a few lines around his eyes and some around his mouth, slightly deeper laugh lines than he was used to seeing. He looked around thirty-five instead of his late twenties, as he had when he’d stopped ageing.

“It didn’t even go gray. Just straight to white,” Alec mused, pushing his bangs this way and that, trying to get used to the new look.

“I can change it if you like?” Magnus said, waving his fingers. He would love Alec if all of his hair turned white and fell out but if Alec didn’t like it, it could easily be fixed.

“No, leave it. It can serve as a reminder for us to live every moment,” Alec said, taking Magnus’ hand instead. The shock of white hair would remind him that life, no matter how long or short, was precious and could be taken away at any moment. Especially because he had people to share his life with, people who loved him as fiercely as he loved them. Sometimes he took that for granted.

“Okay,” Magnus said, tilting his head down to press a soft kiss to Alec’s lips. He took Alec’s hand when he pulled back and led his husband from the spare bedroom through Cara’s eclectic apartment, a mix of modern and ancient artifacts decorating the space, to her potion room. It was similar to his own and rather impressive. He itched to explore it.

“I already made a batch of the potion, which I used on you three days ago,” Magnus explained when they found Cara pouring some blood into a small cauldron. He’d had to drip it into Alec’s mouth. “So we didn’t have to start from scratch,” he said. The blood was the final ingredient and was only to be added when it was ready to be used.

“How do you know it will work?” Alec asked, not wanting to offend either of the Warlocks. “You received your cure centuries ago, does my blood still even run in your veins?” he asked Cara. 

“Nephilim blood is potent. It can be used to cure a lot of things and it doesn’t act like human blood. It is permanent once it enters the bloodstream. Your blood is what keeps me alive, Alec,” Cara said, discarding the empty vial when she was done with it before looking up.

“I'm guessing Magnus never told you what was wrong with me?” Cara asked, continuing when Alec shook his head. “My mother was a succubus. Succubi are supposed to conceive and carry children. As my father was a mundane, I was born a Warlock, therefore unable to bear children. The Warlock children of Succubi rarely live long enough to grow to adulthood, the two types of being that I am don’t mix well together. 

“But as long as I have your blood pumping through me, I am able to survive. We have a connection, Alec,” Cara finished, stirring the potion.

“Blood calls to blood?” Alec asked, finally understanding.

“It was Cara who found you three days ago,” Magnus said, gathering his magic when the potion was completed.

“I feel our connection strongest when you are in New York. Alicante is too far away, you should visit more,” Cara said when Alec’s eyebrows rose. “I could feel that you were in trouble so I followed that connection and found you in the alleyway you collapsed in. I brought you back here and contacted Magnus. He came and brewed the first potion but you didn’t respond as quickly as usual, apparently,” she said.

“How did you get in touch with him? I couldn’t get through,” Alec said, accepting the glass with his potion in it and chugging it back, trying not to think about the fact that there was blood in it. Luckily, Magnus added something that made it taste of fruit whenever he brewed it.

“We have our ways,” Cara said, grinning when Alec rolled his eyes and pulled a face. “Magnus and I have been in contact on and off since I was a child,” she admitted.

Alec just nodded. He knew that Magnus kept in touch with Warlocks and the other Downworlders that he helped. 

“Are you ready?” Magnus asked Alec, his magic building to a crescendo. There was no complicated pattern to weave when Alec nodded. He simply pressed his hand to Alec’s chest, reciting the spell by heart, and pushed his magic into Alec’s body.

The magic was like a jumpstart to Alec, hands gripping Magnus’ arms, his body going rigid, back arched, muscles contracting. Each time they did this, his body had the same reaction, Magnus’ magic coursing through his veins and seeping into every cell that made him up. It only lasted for fifteen to twenty seconds but the sensation set his teeth on edge.

Cara just stared, watching Magnus’ blue magic engulf Alec’s entire body. She feared that Alec would snap in half with the way his back bowed but Magnus’ arm was there, wrapped tightly around Alec’s waist, holding the Shadowhunter up. And then the flair of light disappeared, Alec sagging into Magnus.

“Are you okay?” Magnus whispered to Alec, letting out a shaky breath when Alec looked up at him and nodded, blue sparks, after-effects of his magic, dancing in Alec’s beautiful hazel eyes for a moment. 

“Yeah… I… I…” Alec didn’t know what to say. They had done this so many times that he thought he was used to it. He was used to it. Usually. He didn’t expect to feel the hum under his skin, however. It reminded him of the time when he had gone to Edom to rescue Magnus and taken the alliance rune with their friend, Lorenzo. 

It wasn’t magic that hummed under Alec’s skin, that much he knew. He still remembered how that felt after all these years. But he’d never felt the strange sensation that was akin to it whenever they had performed the spell in the past.

“What? What is it?” Magnus asked, helping Alec stand properly, raising a hand to cup Alec’s jaw, his thumb sweeping over Alec’s cheek.

“I don’t know,” Alec said, shrugging his shoulders as he searched Magnus’ eyes. If he had to describe it, he would say that he was aware of every part of himself, the odd sensation humming constantly under his skin. Not in a bad way, just… different.

“Maybe it worked?” Cara asked, looking from Magnus to Alec.

“We’ll just have to wait and see,” Magnus said, hoping he would be able to get some sleep over the next fifty-odd years until they knew for sure.

~~~

They did wait and see, the three of them monitoring Alec over the years, building a strong family connection. Especially when Cara met Max. They all breathed a little easier after 50 years, and 100 and 150 years. Alec never aged a day and never needed the spell again. 

**Author's Note:**

> I was kinda on the edge of my seat writing this. I probably should have been sleeping but who cares?

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Blood Calls to Blood; The Prequel](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20981462) by [AtowncalledMalec](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtowncalledMalec/pseuds/AtowncalledMalec)




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